Introduction The Scottish Baccalaureate in Science has been designed to provide a challenging and rewarding experience for candidates in fifth and sixth year of secondary school. It is based on a coherent group of subjects at Higher and Advanced Higher level with the addition of the Interdisciplinary Project, which offers added breadth and value and helps to equip the candidate with the generic skills, attitudes and confidence necessary to make the transition into Higher Education and/or employment.
The Baccalaureate program can only be done by students who do two or more Advanced Higher courses. During our stay in Aberdeen, Scotland we were introduced to the Baccalaureate in Old Machar Academy and Bridge of Don Academy. The structure of the Baccalaureate is different from the Higher and the Advanced Higher.
“It’s less structured than higher and advanced higher, you don’t have to be set to this and that, and you can literally do what you want to do, what interests you. There is no internal school exam that you have to do.”
A few students showed us their projects. An example of a students project is quoted below.
“My baccalaureate was about hydrogen field cells and whether they’d be better for cars that are using petrol. I came up with the idea for it when I went to London on holiday last summer and saw hydrogen field cell car in the science museum, it was really interesting to see that they actually made one. I went in to look whether it would actually produce more energy than a petrol engine would. I wanted to do experiments for it but I couldn’t get them to work in the labs or anything. I just had to use data from the internet to see if hydrogen was actually better. I have a little hydrogen car at home, it’s like a little toy one. It runs for like 2 or 3 minutes. The only issue was you had to charge it for like 15 minutes, and it only worked for 2 or 3 minutes so it wasn’t the most efficient of things. I’m presenting it in a small leaflet and I’m going to write a report about whether hydrogen would actually be better than petrol.“
How the project is done What students do is write a proposal of a topic on more than one area of science. “You can choose any kind of science topic, economic, community or stuff like that. You need to have a good reason why you have to do it.”
The students then rate their skills in the beginning of the project and then assess them throughout the project to see their development in the end. After rating, research of the chosen topic is to be done. When they are done with the research then they present their work in a way of their own choosing. It could be a PowerPoint presentation, a book, a DVD, a written report, a magazine or a website.
The final product is not assessed. It’s the progress and the development of the student’s skills and abilities that will be assessed.
“You look at your skills before and you’ll grade that at the start and then at the end of the project, so you can see how well you have developed throughout it.
You’re constantly talking throughout the project about what you’ve done and how you’ve gained this skill and that skill and basically you grade it on how your research has helped benefit your project.”
Opinions We asked the students what they think about the Baccalaureate and most of them seemed to think it’s much harder than the average class, but harder in a good way, more challenging.
“I think it makes it more difficult, because it challenges you to think on your own and doing it yourself. I think it’s better that way, but also harder, because it’s not just step-by-step.”
“The baccalaureate was quite challenging because although you received some feedback from teachers, it’s mostly your own work, you have to be motivated and strict with yourself. It gave me confidence, by making me go out my way to speak to people that I don’t know. I decided to present my findings with a website, this was quite challenging.”
Links to Personalised Learning Baccalaureate is linked to Personalised Learning in the way that it gives the student choice in picking what they are interested in and how they do their project according to what suits them best.
It also gives the student responsibility in their own learning and they are not only assessed in the end of the project, but they assessed throughout the project and teachers looks at the student’s progress as well as the student has the opportunity to do self-reflection and self-assessment. This is good, it challenges students’ abilities and it helps them evolve their learning.
Introduction
The Scottish Baccalaureate in Science has been designed to provide a challenging and rewarding experience for candidates in fifth and sixth year of secondary school.
It is based on a coherent group of subjects at Higher and Advanced Higher level with the addition of the Interdisciplinary Project, which offers added breadth and value and helps to equip the candidate with the generic skills, attitudes and confidence necessary to make the transition into Higher Education and/or employment.
The Baccalaureate program can only be done by students who do two or more Advanced Higher courses.
During our stay in Aberdeen, Scotland we were introduced to the Baccalaureate in Old Machar Academy and Bridge of Don Academy.
The structure of the Baccalaureate is different from the Higher and the Advanced Higher.
“It’s less structured than higher and advanced higher, you don’t have to be set to this and that, and you can literally do what you want to do, what interests you. There is no internal school exam that you have to do.”
A few students showed us their projects. An example of a students project is quoted below.
“My baccalaureate was about hydrogen field cells and whether they’d be better for cars that are using petrol. I came up with the idea for it when I went to London on holiday last summer and saw hydrogen field cell car in the science museum, it was really interesting to see that they actually made one. I went in to look whether it would actually produce more energy than a petrol engine would. I wanted to do experiments for it but I couldn’t get them to work in the labs or anything. I just had to use data from the internet to see if hydrogen was actually better. I have a little hydrogen car at home, it’s like a little toy one. It runs for like 2 or 3 minutes. The only issue was you had to charge it for like 15 minutes, and it only worked for 2 or 3 minutes so it wasn’t the most efficient of things. I’m presenting it in a small leaflet and I’m going to write a report about whether hydrogen would actually be better than petrol.“
How the project is done
What students do is write a proposal of a topic on more than one area of science.
“You can choose any kind of science topic, economic, community or stuff like that. You need to have a good reason why you have to do it.”
The students then rate their skills in the beginning of the project and then assess them throughout the project to see their development in the end.
After rating, research of the chosen topic is to be done. When they are done with the research then they present their work in a way of their own choosing. It could be a PowerPoint presentation, a book, a DVD, a written report, a magazine or a website.
The final product is not assessed. It’s the progress and the development of the student’s skills and abilities that will be assessed.
“You look at your skills before and you’ll grade that at the start and then at the end of the project, so you can see how well you have developed throughout it.
You’re constantly talking throughout the project about what you’ve done and how you’ve gained this skill and that skill and basically you grade it on how your research has helped benefit your project.”
Opinions
We asked the students what they think about the Baccalaureate and most of them seemed to think it’s much harder than the average class, but harder in a good way, more challenging.
“I think it makes it more difficult, because it challenges you to think on your own and doing it yourself. I think it’s better that way, but also harder, because it’s not just step-by-step.”
“The baccalaureate was quite challenging because although you received some feedback from teachers, it’s mostly your own work, you have to be motivated and strict with yourself. It gave me confidence, by making me go out my way to speak to people that I don’t know. I decided to present my findings with a website, this was quite challenging.”
Links to Personalised Learning
Baccalaureate is linked to Personalised Learning in the way that it gives the student choice in picking what they are interested in and how they do their project according to what suits them best.
It also gives the student responsibility in their own learning and they are not only assessed in the end of the project, but they assessed throughout the project and teachers looks at the student’s progress as well as the student has the opportunity to do self-reflection and self-assessment.
This is good, it challenges students’ abilities and it helps them evolve their learning.